Paris Jews Appeal to Gromyko to Permit Jewish Emigration from Russia

A solemn appeal to Soviet Foreign Minister Amire Gromyko, currently in Paris on an official visit, to permit the reunion of families separated by World War II and Nazi persecution emerged last night from a mass meeting held here to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt against the Nazis.

Several thousand people crowded the huge Paris Hall to pay tribute to the Ghetto fighters. The participants include Israel Ambassador Walter Eytan, Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan and a number of French non-Jewish personalities.

The appeal to the Soviet Foreign Minister was made on behalf of local Jewish organizations by Dr. F. Menahem, president of the Liaison Committee. He told the assemblage that “it is a tragic fact that, 20 years after the war and just as they are emerging from an unprecedented tragedy, 3,000,000 Soviet Jews are deprived of their culture and prevented from freely exercising their faith.”

“We are addressing ourselves to Gromyko on behalf of the tens of thousands of Jewish families dispersed by the war and the Nazi persecutions and who have waited for 20 years for the possibility to reunite,” he said. He added that he was speaking not only as a Jew but also as a Frenchman “at a time when relations between France and the Soviet Union are becoming closer and friendlier.”

Declaring that anti-Jewish discriminations could affect those relations, he said that “French public opinion cannot remain mute before such an injustice.” Other speakers included former Minister Diomede Catroux, and Catholic Deputy Alfred Coste Floret. M. Catroux reiterated Franco-Israeli friendship and called on France and all other nations to oppose the Arab boycott of Israel which, he said, could prove in the long run to be more dangerous to Israel than a military attack.